1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for treating an object with a gas, e.g., a wiper blade for cleaning window glass of an automobile, a train or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are generally known wiper blades made of rubber/synthetic resins, and surfaces of these wiper blades must be treated. It is because in a state before the treatment, friction resistance is large due to excessively high adhesion to cause application of a load more than necessary on a motor, motor locking, and other problems, and wear resistance is extremely low to cause early losses and various other problems.
Thus, for example, in the case of treating a wiper blade of a product shape formed by press molding or the like, various treatment methods have conventionally been employed. One example is that a blade is set in a hermetically sealed container filled with a desired treatment gas (bromine gas, chlorine gas or the like), treated with the gas at a desired temperature for a desired time, and then taken out and washed by water to be made into a product (Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKOKU Publication No. 37-3807).
According to the conventional method, the gas must be completely removed from the container in order to take out the treated blade from the container after gas treatment work. Such a method requires time and labor for gas removal, and consequently a treatment capability cannot be improved.
There is known another wiper blade which is formed by treating a continuous object formed in a long shape by extrusion molding with a gas, and then cutting it into individual product shapes (Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKOKU Publication No. 4-19021). Such a method and an apparatus have constitutions suited to continuous treatment of a long continuous object, comprise a long continuous object in an inclined manner, and are adapted to continuously put the long object in a treatment cylinder filled with a treatment gas, treat it with a gas in a gas atmosphere in the cylinder, and then pull it out from the apparatus to sequentially cut it into desired product shapes. According to the method and the apparatus, since the object to be treated is continuously passed in the gas atmosphere, treatment work can be carried out continuously without any gas removal work after the gas treatment different from the aforementioned case. Thus, a treatment capability is high.
Such a conventional art targets a long continuous object, but cannot treat a blade (short object) formed in an individual product shape by press molding or the like with a gas by the method/apparatus because of its constitution.
That is, in the case of the short object, it is impossible to hold it in the treatment cylinder for a fixed time, and then to automatically pull out a treated blade from the treatment cylinder to take it out of the outside of the apparatus.
Further, for example, if a blade of a product shape is put in the conventional treatment cylinder, because of inclination of the treatment cylinder, the blade falls to a bottom part in the treatment cylinder by its own weight, and then treated with a gas there for a fixed time. However, if the blade is treated with the gas in the fallen state to the bottom part in the cylinder, a part in contact with a cylinder inner wall may not be treated with the gas to cause uneven treatment.
The present invention has been made with the foregoing problems of the conventional art in mind, and objects of the invention are to provide a method and a reaction apparatus which can safely and continuously treat/discharge especially a short object to be treated without direct contact with a gas atmosphere, and which surely/efficiently treat the object with a gas without any uneven treatment.